Windows reverse proxy server

Using a reverse proxy server with ArcGIS Server

January 11, 2019 – 02:41 pm

If you're using a reverse proxy server and the URL to your site does not end with the default string /arcgis (all lowercase), you should also set the ArcGIS Server WebContextURL property. This helps ArcGIS Server construct the correct URLs on all resources it sends to the end user. Do the following to change the WebContextURL:

Log in to the ArcGIS Server Administrator Directory at as a user with administrator privileges.

Click system > properties > update.

In the Properties text box, insert the following JSON, substituting your own ArcGIS Server URL as seen by users outside your organization's firewall.

{ "WebContextURL": " " }

Click Update.

Restart ArcGIS Server on each GIS server in the site. On Windows, this can be accomplished by restarting the ArcGIS Server Windows service on each machine.

Reverse proxy headers and ArcGIS Server

When integrating your reverse proxy with ArcGIS Server or ArcGIS Web Adaptor, be aware that both of these components expect to see the following property set in the header sent by the reverse proxy server:

X-Forwarded-Host=

If this property is set in the header, ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Web Adaptor will return requests to the reverse proxy server that match the reverse proxy server's URL. For example, a request to the ArcGIS Server Services Directory ( will be returned to the client as the same URL.

If the X-Forwarded-Host header property is not set, ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Web Adaptor may return the URL of the internal machine where the request was directed, for example, instead of This is problematic, as clients will not be able to access this URL (commonly noted as a browser 404 error). Also, the client will have some knowledge about the internal machine.